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Essays on symbolism in literature
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In the same way that Wiesenthal’s language of forgiveness elevated Simon’s place in society, Sender’s use of Riva’s language of hope raises her level within society. Specifically in The Cage, the key factor that keeps the Jews’ spirits alive is Riva’s language of hope. Hope is what allows the Jews to keep going, to keep moving forwards. By way of example, is when Laibele suffers tuberculosis, and it is Riva’s job to nourish him. She tells him that one day, all Jews will walk out of the cage, free to build a new life, a new world. No more hunger. Only Freedom. Happiness. A world of brotherhood. “A world of love and peace” (Sender 33). Riva does all she can for her dying brother. She keeps him alive by giving him hope. With the power of love, Riva’s family can help …show more content…
Riva replies strongly that “[he] will live, [they] will all live” (Sender 33). With her belief and ambition, she strengthens the weak and feeds hope to the suffering. If one stops believing in hope then what is the point of living? Without hope, there is nothing. Besides hope, peace has a main role as well. Peace comes from within and outside because it all depends on what you believe and one’s action. If one believes in peace one would take action to fight for peace. Five years pass, the whole time they fought for survival and dignity, “living like human beings” (Sender 130) in spite of the “savagery around [them]” (Sender 130). While fighting, Riva and the remains of her family manage to hide their books behind the curtains, “the source of [their] strength” (Sender 130). Sender shows that hope has kept them alive for five years. They fight for survival and dignity because they still all long for freedom and better lives. With faith that things might get better, they help each other in spite of the terrible things happening around them. In the meantime, most of their strength is coming from the books, which Riva hides under her trapdoor behind the
... of this story is the will to survive. The will to survive is strong in all the characters though there are some who seem to expect they will die at any time. Lina is furious with herself when she stooped low enough to accept food thrown at her by the guards, but she does it anyway. Even the youngest children realize the need to endure the torture and survive. Jonas finds a barrel and comprehends that it could be made into a stove. Janina finds a dead owl and realizes that it could be eaten. This will to survive sometimes results in anger and selfishness, as seen in Ulyushka when forced to share her shack with Lina’s family.
Maya's experience in the junkyard is a life skill treasure. After the fight Maya had with Dolores, while visiting her father in southern California for the summer. Maya decides to leave so she would not be pitied, and believed her father would be relieved if she left. Fear of going home and explaining what happened to her mother she ventured out for somewhere else to stay. Maya felt freedom when she left, as Angelou states in the novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, "The idea of sleeping in the near open bolstered my sense of freedom. I was a loose kite in a gentle wind floating with only my will for an anchor" (251). In other words, she was free and in control of her life. After leaving she ended staying in a junkyard with other kids close
Eliezer’s horrible experiences at Auschwitz left him caught up in his sorrows and anger toward God. His loss of faith in God arises at Auschwitz. He doubts arise when he first sees the furnace pits in which the Nazis are burning babies. This horrifying experience ...
Freedom, is part of the human nature that we all seek to gain. Whether it be because of political reason or some other factor, human beings do are obliged to do things such as moving to a different country or hide to gain their most deserved freedom. Every human being has their natural born rights. However, some people believe that any freedom is conditioned and limited by a different and certain situations. In the book Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktore E. Frankl, the narrator, Frankl dreams of the day he was going to be free again. After being taken to the Auschwitz Jewish camp by the Nazi, Frankl found himself dreading his existence. Along with many others, Frankl experienced one of the most horrific experiences that existed in human history.
Jean Valjean understands the deep emotions felt when the desire to love others persists in one’s heart. Valjean originally felt this desire specifically within his own family. Though during his years in prison, he lost it. In striving to feed his starving family by stealing a loaf of bread, Valjean earned himself “nineteen years” in prison. “He entered in 1796 for having broken a pane of glass and taken a loaf of Bread” (Hugo 86) Valjean loved his family so dearly that he risked rotting in jail rather than seeing them starve. He demonstrates pure charity in this act, for no sane person, would risk his life for others, unless his motivations lie in love. Then love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Corinthians 13:7) Valjean perfectly demonstrates the infinite measures people will take out of l...
Primo Levi tells the readers the explicit details of the concentration camp Auschwitz, in his memoir, “Survival in Auschwitz.” The way in which the author talks about the camp is as if it is its own society. There is a very different and very specific way of life at the camp; their basic needs are provided for them, but only in the simplest form in order to have a small chance of survival. There is no clean, drinkable water, so instead they drink coffee, they eat soup twice a day, and a small amount of bread (26). There are thousands of diverse people living in the camp, who are forced to live with each other and work in a factory, reducing their self-worth to merely factors of production. The author illustrates the only purpose for the Jews is work; “This camp is a work-camp, in German one says Arbeitslager; all the prisoners, there are about ten thousand, work in a factory which produces a type of rubber called Buna, so th...
Denial is another theme in this film which helped to save the Jewish race. Even as they are forced into the ghetto and later into labor camps they are in denial of their real situation. When they are in the ghetto they are optimistic and believe that the bad times will pass, and even when killing surrounds them they won’t let themselves believe the worst.
Throughout the book the strongest scream of the women is their protest against their incarceration. Their despair is thei...
Jews have perished because of their beliefs since the beginning of time but never have so many Jews been persecuted worldwide as they were in World War II. Anne Frank’s diary reaches a place within all of our hearts because it reminds us how easily the innocents can suffer. Sometimes we may choose to close our eyes or look the other way when unjustifiable things happen in our society and Anne’s tale reminds us that ignorance, in part, claimed her life. Sadly, her story is but one of many of those who died in the Holocaust and as with other Jews, her fate was determined by the country she lived in, her sex and her age.
“Who shall live. Who shall die. Few of us will see ripe age and most shall not; Who by beating and who by gas chamber; Who by hunger and who by thirst; Who by exhaustion and who by gunshot; Who by exposure and who by dysentery; Who by suicide and who by typhus.”, Fania made her own version of the biblical means of death. She changed it to fit their situation and how they now lived (Wiviott 136). During the book Paper Hearts the Holocaust is taking place. Many hardships were faced; families split, and lives lost. It was a terrible time, and particularly for Jews. Jews faced inhumane treatment and discrimination on the daily. There was little hope, and few heroic acts. But when a spark caught in one it spread like a wildfire through others.
Finally, upon the analysis of the themes, one’s will to survive, faith, and racism in Jackson’s book, her illustration of the Holocaust victims and their choices made her want people to understand what they went through. If anyone likes reading about the Holocaust, this book is the right one for its vivid images, and more of an understanding of the Holocaust, by letting you (the reader) to get into the book and living it.
“It kills me sometimes, how people die.” , Death said. Sadly, this happened to many in this period of time. Most of those who died did not deserve it, such as, Rudy, Hans, Rosa and all the victims from the holocaust. On page 241 it says, “He didn’t deserve to die the way he did.” Again, another quote from Death describing his opinion about Rudy’s unrighteous passing. This theme will present how life how life was not fair for
...ndurance of poverty, as we witness how Walls has turned her life around and told her inspiring story with the use of pathos, imagery, and narrative coherence to inspire others around her (that if she can do it, so can others). Jeannette made a huge impact to her life once she took matters into her own hands and left her parents to find out what life has in store for her and to prove to herself that she is a better individual and that anything is possible. Despite the harsh words and wrongful actions of Walls’ appalling parents who engage her through arduous experiences, she remained optimistic and made it through the most roughest and traumatic obstacles of her life at the age of three. Walls had always kept her head held high and survived the hardships God put upon her to get to where she is today; an author with a best selling novel to tell her bittersweet story.
In Viktor Frankl’s essay “Man’s Search For Meaning,” he recounts his experiences surviving the holocaust. Frankl shows how traumatic experiences shape people and force them to change in accordance with what is happening to them. Furthermore, he argues that adaptation was the only way he could survive. To prove this, he describes how he learned to shut himself off from certain aspects of his life and pay more attention to aspects of life that gave him hope, such as nature. Similarly, adaptation is also an important concern of Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved. In Beloved, Morrison explores Frankl’s idea about how people adapt differently to trauma, some love more than they previously had because they are finally free to do so, some try to find a shaky balance between independence and love and others rely too heavily on the love of a few.
A excruciating pain, like the loss of a family member or close friend, may cause a person to lose faith for better times in life. This particular source of pain was seen all too much during the Holocaust. Between eleven and seventeen million people lost their lives in concentration and work camps all across Europe including Frankl’s own family. For the ones that this tragedy directly affected, their past occasionally became their present and future: “To be sure, a human being is a finite thing, and his freedom is restricted. It is not freedom from conditions, but it is free to take a stand towards the conditions” (Frankl 130). Frankl explains that while people have the ability to change their outlook on their surroundings, it’s often difficult to escape the aftermath of horrific events from the past. Humans cannot control when, where, and how they were raised. All these factors play a crucial part in the development of one’s personality and behaviors. Your view on life can either help you progress or halt your success in finding your meaning. A person who is lost in their past will not glimpse into the possibilities of what the future hold for them. Instead they will only be in a continuous state of nihilism and lack the motivation to have any type of future at